comedy

I’m not sure a book can tell you how to be funny, whoops, I mean really funny, but this book does. It literally tells you what is funny. Example: simple mindedness also known as a “nice way to say stupid”. On the plus side, there are discussions about some excellent talent such as Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, Johnny Carson, and Jack Benny. For what it’s worth, I would think this book is more about improv and comedic acting than just “being funny”. Even for 1988, this one had too many references to shows in the 1960s and earlier. (Find me a kid that knows about the show Laugh In heck, even their parents probably won’t know.)

Submitter: This one was popular in our middle school library in the 90s, but hasn’t left the shelves since then. This one needs to be updated. Also, none of these people look like the mental image my students would get if they heard the word “clown.”

Holly: Those are clowns? And here I thought I’d have some pictures to torture Mary with!